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Myth-busting 15 common cooking tips

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From searing meat to cutting onions, many top cooking tips make no difference, while others dent the flavour or even increase the risk of food poisoning. We've sifted through some of the most commonly promoted techniques, chewed over the science and put the tips to the test to figure out which should be saved and which should be thrown away.

Gastrophysics: testing new culinary combinations

Network theory may seem an unlikely theme for a tasting menu: it is mostly used to analyse connections in social networks, the spread of disease or the routing of data packets through the internet. Last year, though, network theorist Albert-László Barabási and his team from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, used its tools to map out the connections between related flavour compounds, and so tease out some taste combinations that should be unexpectedly titillating.

Mashed potato with a caper and coffee bean duo

Coffee is a rising star of the edgy gastronomy practised by the likes of UK celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal. It shares so many flavour compounds with so many foods that some chefs have started using it instead of stock. "Certainly coffee and red meat such as beef or venison works well," says Sebastian Ahnert of the University of Cambridge, one of the network-theory team.

But potatoes and capers? Phenylacetaldehyde is an aromatic compound sometimes added to cigarettes to improve their flavour, and is dominant in both coffee and potato, so network theory suggests the two should go well together. Capers and coffee both contain a citrusy flavour compound called rutin. According to the network-theory approach, coffee should act as a "bridging" food that links potatoes to capers and makes for overall delectability.

Perhaps so, but the combination left our taste testers unmoved. "Weird" summed up the response – but then, as good journalists, maybe we overdid the coffee.

Score: 2/10

Roast cauliflower in a dark chocolate fondue

Cauliflower with chocolate has form: Blumenthal wed them in 2004 when he created a cauliflower risotto with cauliflower carpaccio and chocolate jelly.

Network theory says they should indeed match, due to the prominence in both of dimethyl disulphide, a compound that is given off by the noisome dead horse arum plant and is a potent neurotoxin for some cockroaches. And match they do. One grouchy member of our panel groused that "cauliflower with anything is better than cauliflower by itself" – but for the rest it was a surprise hit.

Score: 8/10

Caviar d'Aquitaine on chilled white chocolate

There's something fishy about white chocolate: it contains a marine-smelling compound called trimethylamine that's also present in caviar. Granted, in the chocolate it is rather masked. "Like coffee and wine, chocolate – or rather, cocoa – has a huge number of flavour compounds, which is probably why these foods are so diverse and also so popular," says Ahnert.

Sourcing some fine fish spawn for this dish from London's Fortnum & Mason store almost bust our catering budget. Was it worth it?

Not really. The combination was certainly novel, alternating confusingly in the mouth between better than expected and worse than you might think. "Not gross – just not very nice," was one reaction from our tasting team. Another was prepared to give a verdict only after a hearty swig of palate-cleansing beer.

Score: 4/10

Gruyère cheese and honey mini frittata

"3-methylbutanoic acid is very dominant in gruyère, and in many honeys," says Ahnert.

That would explain why the combination passed our test, but not why it tasted so familiar. Eventually an astute member of our panel put their finger on it. "Tastes like McDonald's – it's got that sweet but greasy thing to it." All the frittatas had disappeared by the end of the experiment.

The presence of egg in the recipe, incidentally, is uncontroversial: egg is one of the most highly connected bridging foods.

Score: 9/10

Stilton with a rhubarb compote

The link between stilton and rhubarb is nonanoic acid, a derivative of which is used in some pepper sprays. For some of our tasters, a pepper spray would have been preferable. "I love rhubarb and I love stilton," lamented one. "But I don't love this."

Others later polished off all the leftovers. This was the polariser of our canapé spread – one to either love or hate.

Score: 5/10

Grilled asparagus with violet dust

Asparagus and violets both contain beta-ionone, an aromatic compound that gives violets and roses their pleasant smell. It is, as far as researchers can tell, not implicated in the noxious smell that wafts from the urine of asparagus-eaters.

For our recipe, we decided on a broad interpretation of violet, and resorted to crushed Parma violet sweets. That didn't quite nail it. "Tastes like asparagus in washing-up water," was one reaction; "I liked it until you said that," was another.

Still, people kept nibbling at it, leading us to the conclusion that, in its pure form, the combination works.

Score: 6/10

Mini baked potatoes with raspberry beads

Linked by the dominance of the compound hexanal – with an aroma that has been compared to freshly mown grass – the combination of raspberry and potato was largely judged as inoffensive by our tasting panel.

Whether it's one you'd seek out, however, is another matter. Perhaps the problem was our recipe. "It has very early raspberry and late potato," complained one reviewer. "They don't offend, but they don't gel."

Score: 6/10

Bloody Mary with lapsang souchong tea

Canapés are nothing without cocktails, and for our accompanying drink we chose a smoky variant of a cocktail classic. Black tea and tomato share many dominant flavour compounds, including 4-hydroxy-2,5-dimethyl-3(2H)-furanone and linalool. Linalool is also a prominent flavour compound in lemons, so our cocktail chef added some lemon juice for good measure.

The choice of lapsang souchong tea, with its characteristic smoky flavour, proved controversial. "I detect a faint aftertaste of Doritos," said one intrepid gastronaut, before draining his glass.

This was a combination that took many attempts to get right. The best recipe remains a little hazy, but we think it's the one that omits the Worcester sauce.

Score: 8/10

Our verdict

Does network theory present a new approach to gastronomy? We're reserving our judgement. But the wide variety of responses to each dish reveals a home truth that Ahnert himself readily admits: many factors besides the purely chemical account for taste. There are genetic differences, for a start – or even the fact that unpleasant associations of your grandmother's potatoes will ruin the most artfully seasoned canapé. "Our expectations towards food and our memories and associations can be just as powerful as our mouth and nose in determining flavour," says Ahnert, as our festive feature on sensory crossover at the dinner table indeed shows.

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